Whitko Faces Harding In Re-Match

With one second left, Shamane Jamison hauled in a Corey Moore pass for a touchdown.The score shocked Whitko as it broke a 15-15 tie and gave Harding the 23-15 win. That happened last year in the sectional championship game. Whitko and Harding meet again this year on Friday, but this is just for the right to play in the sectional championship, which would take place Nov.8. Whitko and Harding enter the game with identical 7-2 records.If the Wildcats win this game, they would play for their first sectional title since 1986. Whitko looked impressive in a 43-6 first-round win over Blackford, rolling up 511 yards of offense.The Whitko starters rested most of the second half.

Executive Committee Upholds Wideman Ineligibility

For now, Sam Wideman will remain on the sideline. The volleyball/basketball player, who was ruled ineligible for 365 days by IHSAA Commissioner Bob Gardner earlier, will have to wait until next year to make her Warsaw High School debut on any court.The IHSAA executive committee upheld Gardner's decision and turned down an appeal. Gardner would not comment on the board's decision, but did talk about his earlier ruling. "I believe it was based purely on athletic reasons and that was the reason for the ruling of ineligibility," he said."All factors in the case had to be considered." Warsaw was informed of the committee's decision Thursday. "It is an adult problem where a student got caught in the middle," Warsaw principal Paul Crousure said."That is basically it.

Right Through The Uprights

SYRACUSE - It wasn't like Sam Wihebrink was underappreciated, just underused. The Warsaw coaching staff knows about Wihebrink, who regularly boots 40-yard plus field goals in warmups.It is just that the struggling Tiger offense rarely gave him any opportunities. That changed when Friday when Wihebrink got the chance to show what he can do with his right foot when he shook off the rust and booted a 27-yard field goal as time expired to hand Warsaw an emotional 16-13 win over Wawasee at Warrior Field. Wihebrink had to wait for his turn to be the hero as Wawasee called two straight time outs in an effort to freeze the Tiger junior.But it didn't do much good as Wihebrink split the uprights from the right hash mark to help snap a two-game winning streak by the Warriors in the series between the two teams and return the traveling "W" trophy to Warsaw.

On The Gridiron

First-Half Turnovers Bury Wawasee

SYRACUSE - When you play a top-ranked team in the state, you better not turn the football over. That was what Wawasee could not afford against 7-0 No.2 (3A) Mishawaka Marian. Wawasee turned the ball over four times in the first half, enabling Mishawaka Marian to cruise to a 34-0 win in a non-conference football game on Wawasee's homecoming night.The Warriors dropped to 2-6. "We really played hard tonight, but turnovers did us in," Wawasee coach Joe Rietveld said."Mishawaka Marian is a very good team.You can't afford a turnover, let alone four in one half." Wawasee came out fired up on homecoming night.The Warriors opened the game with a 10-play drive that stalled when quarterback Brent Doty threw an interception with 7:44 left in the first quarter.Seven plays later, Mishawaka Marian scored on Rocco Decicco's 26-yard touchdown run, his first of three touchdowns in the game.

Goshen Guns Down Wawasee

After Friday's 42-7 loss to No.1 (4A) Goshen, Wawasee football coach Joe Rietveld resorted to talking about dreams. "You only dream about playing a team like this and beating them, and we did not take advantage of it," Rietveld said. That says it all. The Wawasee Warriors went into Friday night's game with one goal: Keep it close.The Warriors didn't, and this killed them. The Goshen Redskins came into the game undefeated and leading the Northern Lakes Conference.They weren't about to let the Warriors get in their way. The Redskins tallied 42 points in the first half on six touchdowns and six extra points by Daragh Deegan. "They threw plays at us we've never seen, and we didn't react well," said Rietveld. The Warriors did manage to score a lone touchdown when Jimmy Meyer had a 56-yard rush to set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Adam Brown.

Bethel Bounces Grace

WINONA LAKE - When it looked as though a shorthanded Grace volleyball team was going to run out of gas against Bethel Wednesday at Lancer Gym, the only option the Lancers had was to reach down and find the reserve tank of energy inside each one of them because there was no chance to fill up on the bench. The Lancers found the fuel they needed time and time again, but it wasn't enough as the Pilots outlasted Grace in five games 15-10, 10-15, 15-11, 12-15, 15-9. For the entire match, Grace played with six players.There were no substitutions made.Lancer coach Candace Moats didn't have that option. Three of Grace's players will be having surgery this month - two for knee problems and one for a back - and a fourth player sat out with an illness.But the Lancers have been getting used to the situation, having had the limited numbers for about two weeks.

Stichter Wins Fourth Regional

GOSHEN - Like Tom Hanks' character in the motion picture Forrest Gump, Wawasee High School senior Rachel Stichter can run like the wind blows. And on a cold and windy morning Saturday at Ox Bow Park, Stichter won her fourth consecutive cross country regional championship, running with, through and against the wind as she easily distanced herself from the competition. Stichter, who last week won her fourth straight Northern Lakes Conference championship and fourth consecutive sectional championship at Ox Bow Park, won Saturday's 4,000-meter regional in a time of 14:08. Her time, which was the same sectional-record time she ran last week in good weather, was 33 seconds better than runner-up Megan Jackson of second-ranked Northridge. Stichter's time was also 15 seconds better than her winning regional time of a year ago.

NorthWood Conquers Unknown

NAPPANEE - One interesting aspect of sectional play is meeting teams that you haven't seen yet.It means sometimes going up against an offensive system that is foreign to your defense. Such was the case of Angola and NorthWood Friday in Class 3A, Sectional 19 action.Neither team had much experience of defending each other's offense, but it was NorthWood who managed to make the right adjustments at the right time and survived a wild 27-21 decision over the Hornets. The No.9 Panthers (9-2) will now travel to Northern Lakes Conference rival Northridge Friday for the sectional championship game. The run-oriented Hornets ran up over 300 yards on the ground, but NorthWood countered with a timely passing game and 208 aerial yards from sophomore quarterback Charlie Roeder. "They are a different offense," NorthWood coach Rich Dodson said."It was something different from what we have seen, and it took some time to get used to it.They were very good at what they were doing.

Wildcats Run Over Warriors

SOUTH WHITLEY - Whitko's 1986 football team, a state champion, was honored at halftime last night.Current coach Bryan Sprunger was their coach 10 years ago, and that football team won the state title the way Sprunger likes to win all of his games - by running the football. With several of the 1986 members looking on from the stands, the 1996 Wildcats borrowed a page from their playbook. Whitko rushed for 514 yards on 105 carries and smashed a young North Miami squad 40-6.The North Miami defense had shaky statistics entering the game - the Warriors were allowing 32 points per game.Whitko's offensive line dominated the game, creating gaping holes that the backs shot through for big yardage.When the Wildcats weren't ramming the ball up the middle, they swung it around to the outside for even more yardage.

Vikings Win A Laugher, 54-8

AKRON - Before Tippecanoe Valley's last home football game of the season Friday with Three Rivers Conference nemesis North Miami, Viking coach Scott Bibler gave his players an ultimatum. "I challenged the kids before the game," said Bibler."Tippecanoe Valley has a great tradition here.Since we started playing football here 24 years ago, we've only had five losing seasons.At 3-4, the kids could either end up winners or be the sixth team with a losing record.They've gone through a lot of adversity, but they hung tough.I hope they set their sights high." The Vikings met Bibler's challenge last night with a 54-8 shellacking of the Warriors.The win improves Valley's overall season record to 4-4 and 3-3 in league play.North Miami falls to 3-5 and 3-3.

Angola Stuns Wawasee In Regional First Round

DUNLAP -ÊGoing into the Concord Regional Tuesday night, the Wawasee Warriors had a 12-6 record.Their opponent, Angola, was 8-8.On paper it looked as though Wawasee had the advantage. However, matches are not played on paper, and Angola edged the Warriors 3-2 on the court. "I've got to give Angola credit," said Wawasee coach Phil Mishler."They wanted it more than we did tonight.They were fired up and ready to play.They finished their matches. "Our guys, for whatever reason, didn't start well, or if they did, they didn't finish well." After Cole Twitchell defeated Scott Beasley at the No.1 singles slot to give Angola a 1-0 lead, Wawasee's Evan Gerard evened the score at 1-all by defeating Andrew Miller 6-0, 6-1.

Wawasee Wins Volleyball Sectional Opener

SYRACUSE - Thursday night's sectional opener against West Noble was a microcosm of Wawasee's season.The Warriors were up and down, but managed a 22-25, 25-16, 22-25, 25-9, 15-11 win in the Wawasee volleyball sectional. Wawasee came out flat and fell behind 6-1 early.Wawasee battled back but couldn't overcome some solid play by West Noble and its own mistakes. The Warriors took a 7-6 lead in the first game but couldn't remain consistent enough to win. The second game saw a completely different Wawasee squad.The Warriors jumped out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back on its way to a 25-16 win.The game was highlighted by several powerful spikes by Shawn Knafel and Krista Spearman. Wawasee recently moved from a 6-1 formation to a 5-2 formation due to injury and illness.Warrior head coach Amy Miller worries that shift may be something other teams may try and take advantage of.

Tigers Sneak Past Bruins

For a six-minute period during the second half of Warsaw's girls soccer match with Bethany Christian Tuesday at the City-County Athletic Complex, the Tigers were simply outmatched. Bethany Christian's Megan Gongwer used her tremendous speed to beat the Warsaw defense for two goals to tie the contest at 2-2 but the Tigers were able to escape with a 3-2 win. The Tigers jumped out early when Courtney Flamion took a great lead pass from Abby Rankin and scored to give Warsaw a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute of play. Warsaw took that lead into the second half before Rankin got a goal of her own in the 47th minute on a pass from Amy Durgin to give the Tigers what seemed to be an insurance goal. Gongwer forced Warsaw to cash that insurance in. The Bruins spent nearly 10 minutes in Warsaw's half of the field and continually found Gongwer sneaking behind the Tigers' defense and capitalized twice in six minutes to tie the contest at 2-2.

Warsaw Retains Possession Of 'W' Trophy In Overtime Thriller

SYRACUSE - Their respective communities a stone's throw away from each other, Warsaw and Wawasee's football teams were just as close Friday night. In a battle of Northern Lakes Conference and Kosciusko County rivals, the Tigers and Warriors mirrored each other, going toe-to-toe before Warsaw escaped with a 17-16 win in overtime when Warrior junior Ben Champoux's extra-point attempt missed wide right. "A 1-point loss in overtime, what else can you say, especially in a rivalry like this," Wawasee coach Joe Rietveld said."This is a tough loss." Deadlocked at 10 after four quarters, the host Warriors won the coin toss and elected to put Warsaw on offense first in the overtime session.

Golden Eagles Feel Wrath Of Reimer

CONVERSE -ÊWith all the talk about Manchester's David Barrett, it's easy to overlook the fact that the Squires have an exceptional football player in senior quarterback Rex Reimer. Reimer has more than 1,000 all-purpose yards this season.While most of those yards came through the air, he is still a threat to run the ball. That was evident Friday as Reimer rushed for 146 yards on seven carries as Manchester rolled over the Oak Hill Golden Eagles 38-7 on its way to a rematch with No.4 (2A) Heritage.Heritage handed Manchester its only loss of the season. Manchester set the tempo of its game against Oak Hill early on. On Oak Hill's first drive of the game, the Golden Eagles drove the ball down to Manchester's 43-yard line.Faced with fourth and inches, Oak Hill gave the ball to fullback Kevin Warnock.As soon as Warnock got the ball, he was meet behind the line of scrimmage by linebacker Greg Groombridge.

Warsaw's Perfect Season Ends With 42-28 Loss

The fans at the Warsaw-NorthWood football game got their money's worth Friday night at Fisher Field as the 7-0 Tigers squared off against the 6-1 Panthers.But in the end, it was the Tigers who paid the price. "This was a good football game between two good football teams, especially from a fan's point of view," said NorthWood coach Rich Dodson."This was an exciting matchup even for the coaches." NorthWood handed the Tigers their first loss of the season 42-28, but more importantly their first Northern Lakes Conference loss this year.If both teams win against their conference opponents next week, they will share the conference crown.

Pee Wee Football Celebrates 20th Anniversary

After 20 years, three presidents, thousands of kids and a countless number of volunteer coaches and assistants, the Kosciusko County Pee Wee Football League is still going strong.The prevailing motto is simply fun and fundamentals. In 1984, a handful of local residents weary from taking their kids to Plymouth to play football decided it was time for Warsaw to have a league of it's own.Jim Breading, the league's first president, along with several others in the community, including Gary Fribley, the father of the late David Fribley, got things off the ground. This year more than 300 boys and girls will participate in the league.Over the past six years, participation from girls has spiked.The league's aim isn't to find the next Brett Favre or Emmitt Smith.Besides fun and fundamentals, it's also a way to provide role models to kids who may be lacking one.

Warsaw Boys Win Soccer Sectional

ARGOS - Plymouth showed a lot of heart and soul against Warsaw in the championship game of the Argos boys soccer sectional Saturday night at Eugene Snyder Field. The Rockies, however, couldn't overcome the heart and soul of the Tiger offense. Sophomore Jesse Sharp broke a scoreless tie in the 68th minute on an assist from his older brother, senior Jordan Sharp, to give Warsaw the lead and eventually a 1-0 win. It was Warsaw's fifth straight sectional title. "Jesse Sharp is such a workhorse," said Warsaw coach Scott Bauer."He's always out there working.He's the heart and soul of our offense." The Tigers beat Plymouth earlier in the season but couldn't get on the scoreboard due to some bad bounces and a Rockies squad that was intent on keeping the Tigers out of the goal.

Keady Speaks About Players

It is a change that Gene Keady has seen in the past decade and one he isn't too fond of.Changes in society over the past decade have changed the way players are viewing the game of basketball, making them more of take the money and run type of players. According to the men's basketball coach at Purdue, who spoke at the Builders Association of Kosciusko-Fulton County Monday at the 2517 Restaurant, players today are thinking less about getting an education and more about getting rich.